Mhmmm.
The warm morning rays glowed brightly on Luke’s fair skin. His silky light brown hair fell to his forehead, giving him an ethereal feel.
Slowly opening his eyes, he lazily sat up and stretched his hand. Tch he clicked his tongue as his fuzzy mind remembered what had transpired yesterday, and it was indeed not a dream.
Looking beside his soft bed, he could see a trolley of food placed there, covered by glass lids. Beside it was a moveable cloth rack filled with clothes that seemed rather lavish.
They’re putting in quite the effort. Luke could bet all of this was prepared for the person who was supposed to be here instead of him. ‘He’ was an accident that was caused due to Garhan’s ego. Not that I am complaining.
Getting out of the soft mattress, an equally soft floor greeted his bare legs. Without reservation, Luke opened the bathroom door and got inside.
Looking at his own disheveled appearance, he couldn’t help but feel out of place.
The mirror reflected the figure of a handsome man who looked to be 20 years old. That was mostly due to his 6’1 feet height and the slight stubble protruding out of his chin and cheeks. He was someone who only had his looks going for himself, so even back on Earth, he made sure to maintain them as much as he could. He had ended up with a sleeper build with his slender yet buffed body.
His face was devoid of any blemishes, and the topping on it all was his bright crystalline blue eyes that seemed like priceless gems.
Looking around in the fairly modern-looking bathroom, he realized how beautifully this world's magic was ingrained. The shining blue showerhead was hovering at a decent height without anything holding it.
…how do I turn it on? Because there were no taps or buttons, Luke didn’t know how to turn this thing on. After struggling to find a way to turn it on, he gave up and came out. He opened the door to go out and find someone who could help him, but to his surprise, two maids were already on standby. As soon as they saw him, they immediately bowed.
“Good morning sir, is there something you need?” One of the older-looking maids asked curtly.
“Well, how do I turn on the showerhead?” Luke gently caressed the back of his head in an attempt to look as sincere as he could. The old maid just told him to follow her and went with him inside the bathroom.
“On,” she said from a distance, and water started gushing out of the showerhead with no visible supply, “Off,” and the water gushing out turned off. There was no way to manage how much water came out of the shower head though. Apart from saying on and off, even clapping twice was an acceptable trigger to turn the shower on and off.
“The master has invited you to have breakfast with him if you end up waking up early, use the clothes over there and come downstairs when you are done,” saying that the old maid left the room. Washing himself thoroughly by using the sweet-smelling soap, Luke picked up a random black cloth from the hoards of cloth and tried his best to wear it.
It was a thin white shirt below a thick, soft jacket with straps to his left and cream-ish breeches with a pair of chocolate-colored leather boots.
He couldn’t find a comb, so he just made it with his hands and tried to set up his hair as well as he could before finally looking at himself from the dressing table placed beside the bed.
After tidying his clothes and making sure he looked the best he could right now, he left his room and started walking the lavishly decorated long corridor towards the stairs.
Reaching downstairs, he could finally take in a good look at the mansion and realize just how outrageously big and marvelously built it was.
It was built with a white and blue theme, enhancing the overall look of the place. There were flowers and magical stones decorating the walls, and even the marble tiles below his feet just gave a high-class feel.
He was soon guided by a butler to the dining area which was towards the left of the stairs.
Luke’s nose twitched unconsciously as he took in the mouth-watering fragrance of delicious food. In the large dining area, there was one long table on which there were neatly placed tablecloths and sets of silverware.
In the chairs placed around the dining table, Garhan was sitting on the head seat placed at the end of the table. Beside him was a beautiful middle-aged woman with blonde hair. On the other side were two young men who looked to be around the same age as Luke and a woman who looked slightly older, in her mid-20s.
Both of the guys had white hair, the same as the old Garhan, but the girl had blonde hair.
That must be his family. Looking at the number of tables present here, he must have a lot more kids than just these. Let’s see. Luke thought inwardly as he smiled at everyone who suddenly started looking at him with various expressions on their face as he said, “Good morning everyone, hope you’re all having a great day,” he bowed a little as soon as he said that, spreading out his warm greetings.
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The middle-aged blonde woman smiled elegantly as she placed her hands on her mouth. The two young men gave a slightly displeased look but didn’t say anything. Funny how they have the same look as Garhan. Luke thought as he looked at the beautiful woman sitting towards the right. She didn’t react at all to his greeting, not even sparing a glance as she composedly ate her food.
“Be seated,” Garhan said in a calm voice, and instead of asking where he should sit, Luke just walked towards both of those young men and sat in the empty chair between them.
Fufu. He could hear the sound of an elegant laugh coming out of the middle-aged woman.
“Are these your sons?” Luke asked in a polite tone as he bit down on the meat he had just cut from his knife. Having meat first thing in the morning wasn’t something Luke was used to, but he didn’t have the luxury to complain.
Garhan looked visibly pleased and bloated as soon as he heard ‘sons’ instead of ‘grandsons’. After all, anyone would pass him as the grandfather of those kids. Which just reminded him of how he aged so fast compared to his peers.
“Cough, ahem. Yes, they’re my youngest sons, Joe and Leo. That’s my third daughter Rienna,” Garhan introduced curtly, and just when he was about to introduce the middle-aged woman, Luke cut him off, “Ah, then this beautiful lady must be the love of your life.”
The middle-aged woman visibly brightened up at being complimented, making Joe and Leo grit their teeth as they glared at Luke.
This slimy bastard! Garhan hated people who could only talk the most since he himself didn’t have much eloquence. As a war general of the kingdom, he was revered for his mighty strength, but eloquence was one thing that he lacked, and in the end, he ended up with the belief that a warrior should fight with their body, not their tongue.
“...yes, she’s my wife, Rani, I’ve a total of 7 kids, 4 of whom are currently not present here,” Nevertheless, he continued with the introductions. In the introductions, he briefly started to explain the world to Luke.
As Luke had guessed so far, this was a fantasy world with every cliche involved. From swords and magic to ‘mana’ powered trains and cars, this world with a middle-European feel had it all.
Garhan, who was a proud Viscount of the Rolhart kingdom, was a noble and a war general of the kingdom.
“Then, these ‘Earth-dwellers’, how do they end up here?” Luke asked a question that Martin had already answered right at the beginning, but he just wanted to confirm it once more.
“Till this date, no one knows how or why candidate summoning happens. All the countries of the Grencefert continent have just made a treaty to manage and educate these candidates that have higher potential and growth rate than an average Eldorian,” As expected, there wasn’t a clear answer to it, but Luke caught on to something else from the discussion.
“Candidate summoning? Not ‘Earth-dweller’ summoning?” he asked promptly. They had been calling him and the others 'candidates' a bit too much. He needed to know what it actually meant.
“Yes, some people call it candidate summoning, some call it cadet summoning. It can’t be Earth-dweller summoning when there are people from all sorts of planets being summoned,” Garhan casually replied as he cleaned his mouth with the napkin tucked in his collar.
So Earth isn’t the only planet losing citizens out of the blue, huh? It didn’t really come as much of a surprise after being isekai-ed himself. Luke had decided to take everything as casually as he possibly could, after all, this had happened.
After getting to know more, he learned those candidates from other planets weren’t even humans. Some were Orcs, some were elves, some were dwarfs, and many more things. They were summoned as a group to different locations, and the nobles and high-power people went to the auction of the race they preferred.
Needless to say, as a person who wanted to fit in with everyone, even the weebs, Luke was well-versed in what all these creatures were. That’s why, among the summons, humans from Earth were the least versed when it came to combat, as all the other races had at least some prior education in fighting and self-defense, as well as a basic understanding of mana.
But humans had the most advantage when deciding a ‘route’ to take, so they were just as popular as any other race. Well, at least the talented ones are. Luke couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at the displeased look Garhan was giving him.
It seemed like he finally remembered Luke’s disastrous stats and class from yesterday and was lamenting his luck.
“I’ll be taking my leave first,” Rienna said as she gracefully stood up and left the dining area. Joe and Leo followed soon after. And Garhan left after giving a last look to Luke.
The only person left was Rani and Luke, and the butler who was standing far away on standby.
Well, this is awkward. Rani, who looked middle-aged, was still as beautiful as a flower. And she was the only person who hadn’t blatantly ignored him or shown her displeasure. On the contrary, she was constantly smiling.
After eating his fill, Luke looked around a bit awkwardly, trying to find a way to get out of this situation.
“You don’t need to be so tense. Relax a bit. You don’t always have to maintain that prim and proper attitude,” Rani’s mature voice seemed to soothe Luke’s anxiety as he felt a weird sense of belonging all of a sudden.
Instead of enjoying the sudden surge of relief, he immediately checked Rani’s status.
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[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/852793029303468083/1146832001962352770/19fda9e7-1c21-4678-8d74-0f3a4d0e9908.png]
Rani Virendale
Alignment: Good (??)
Class: Lunar Witch
Title: Witch of Remorse | ??
Specialty: ??
Strength- ?? (?) | Agility- ?? (?) | Intelligence- ?? (?) | Divinity- ?? (?) | Luck- ?? (?) | Wisdom- ?? (?)
Skills- Silver Tongue| ?? | ??
Overall rating- A Crouching Tigress.
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Sure enough, I can’t let my guard around anyone here. Tch. Luke clicked his tongue as the seemingly warm and approachable Rani seemed just as dangerous as Garhan.
“There you go again, you really don’t trust anyone do you?” Rani said as she continued to maintain her smiling appearance. Luke felt chills down his spine, feeling like she was directly staring at his soul.
“Ah then, I’ll be taking my leave for now. Have a good day,” Luke stood up and hastily said as he walked out of the dining room. The old butler followed right after him.
The old man had picked up quite an interestingly incompetent guy. Rani snickered slightly as she watched the retreating figure of the handsome young man.